Monday, 18 January 2010

The Electrical Trades Union says "good riddance" to Barron River Labor MP Steve Wettenhall who has resigned from the union over the privatisation of State assets, that has divided the Queensland Labor party.

You have my word that I will speak to Stuart about this blog first thing tomorrow and give him an almighty rev, based purely on the fact that he didn’t tell the whole story of the ETU members who are MLA’s on the back of ETU members’ hard work and cash.

I’m informed that you know only too well why you’re even in that seat post March and yet you have chosen to turn your back on not only the Union but its members, ALP branch members and the electorate to back a plan that breaches not only the party platform but common sense.

I was also informed of your treatment of Stuart at the recent meeting with Richie Bates, I don’t know how it works in your world but you turn your back on our people, we turn our back on you.

I won’t be returning your call, I only speak with financial members and certainly not unfinancial members that rat on their Union, class and party.

Have a good Christmas.Peter Simpson

The following morning, Wettenhall forwarded his letter of resignation, dated 16 December 2009, the day after the CairnsBlog article...

"I am sure you will understand that my continuing membership of the union has become untenable having regard to the campaign being run by the ETU against the State Labor government," Steve Wettenhall wrote.

"The member for Barron River’s actions suggest a trained monkey could do the job," ETU assistant secretary Allen Hicks says.

Tensions have continued to increase between the union movement and Queensland’s Labor Government over the plan to privatise a number of Government assets.

Steve Wettenhall joined in the ETU July 2006, when he received considerable support from union members during the 2006 and 2009 election campaigns.

At the 2009 State election, Wettenhall retained Barron River with a narrow 52.32% of the two-candidate-preferred vote, against LNP's Wendy Richardson. There was just 161 votes difference.

When first approached by the ETU about this issue, Mr Wettenhall provided the following response, on 26 May 2009, to Far North Queensland organiser, Stuart Traill.

Stuey, I was elected as an endorsed ALP candidate and am a member of the ALP.

On fundamental policy issues such as privatisation, I am guided and indeed consider myself bound by the ALP platform. The relevant section of the current (2008) platform is as below:

5.12 Labor rejects a program of privatisation of public services, such as public hospitals and schools, public enterprises including subsidiary companies or utilities (in particular Rail, Ports, Public Hospitals, electricity and water) as an economic strategy. Privatisation of public enterprises should not be used to solve revenue problems of governments.

Labor believes that it is more through improved management of the existing public sector than through privatisation that Government can provide a wide range of benefits to the community.

I support the party platform.

Regards,Steve Wettenhall MP

Prior to the 2009 State election, Steve Wettenhall organised a visit by Energy Minister, Geoff Wilson, to Ergon’s McLeod Street depot in Cairns. Wilson told the workers that a re-elected Labor Government would not privatise government-owned corporations.

“Mr Wettenhall now tells ETU members that his union membership is untenable. It is not the ETU that is flip flopping around here," Allen Hicks of the ETU says.

“Mr Wettenhall was keen to have the support of ETU members during two election campaigns, for his very marginal seat, and at the time helped reassure ETU members and officials when they raised concerns about privatisation. Now he has turned his back on all that and fallen obediently into line behind the Premier on this issue," Hicks says.

“We elect and pay our politicians to think, not just to toe the line like this. If that is all there is to this political job then a trained monkey could do it."

“We are always being told, when the politicians get a pay and allowances rise, that if you pay peanuts you will get monkeys. If that is the case then we are entitled to a more vigorous contribution than that shown recently by Mr Wettenhall on issues as significant as this one," Allen Hicks says.

“Now that Mr Wettenhall has turned his back on ETU members, he should not be surprised if they turn their back on him in the future,” says Hicks.

"Obviously when he's got down to Brisbane, the heavy-weights got to him," said Stuart Traill.

"He may think that his membership of the ETU is 'untenable' however I think that's gutless, considering the amount of resource and support we [the union] gave him."

"I think he really got upset after the I said on CairnsBlog, that local Labor MPs will simply follow the party line, and not represent the views of their local constituents about assets sales," Traill said. "Steve then went to the State secretary complaining, but didn't get a response he wanted," Traill says

"Wettenhall has said in the past that he supports the ALP platform, that is strongly against privatisation and sale of state assets."

"I regard the circumstances of my resignation from the ETU as a private matter between myself and the union," Barron River MP Steve Wettenhall told CairnsBlog.

57 comments:

colwhohates labor more now
said...

wettenhall is a first class grub , he uses the membership of the union to help him get re elected and used me also, then after he slides back in after using us all , he never even sent a thank you of any source.He and the other grubs rub salt into the wound they all agrees to sell off the states/our assets, trust me we will not forget this low act, you and your other grubs here in cairns are now going to pay for your treachery , to stuey traill your membership is all the better for his resignation , I only hope he was financial and had just paid his dues.

Prior to the last state election whilst enjoying the afl football at cazalys stadium , jim scooter mumbles turnour brought wettenhall over to me and introduced him , he then asked me to assist him in his seat by writing to the cairnsblog .To be honest I had never heard of it , so I bombarded the cairnspost online aimed squarley at lnp wendy richardson .I also rang macca contstantly bagging wendy richardson.I believe I played a part in helping wettenhall get reelected. I too never heard from him or his staff again after he got elected.After his actions then and now and his other labor turncoats here in cairns I will do my level best to fix that mistake I made in helping him and scooter. I Will vote for warren entsch at the next federal election and encourage all other digruntled labor voters to do the same.

Bryan,The Wild Rivers legislation was passed in 2005. If you can find any facts that relate to Green preferences for Labor at the last election becauae of Wild Rivers then I'm sure the readers on this blog would be interested. Again, you have clouded fact with fantasy.

Taken from "scooters maiden and probaly only speech to parliamentI RANG HIM AND ASKED HIM TO SAY SOMETHING ANYTHING ABOUT THE STATE MEMBERS WEAK AS PISS RESPONSE TO PRIVATZATION,HE SAID I WONT ATTACK MY LABOR STATE COUNTERPARTSanother guless effort jimmy boy !

I want to thank my campaign and the Your Rights at Work campaign for the effort they put in. The timing was right and the national swing was on, but you do not achieve 15 per cent without a great local campaign. I was endorsed in April 2006 and we ran a mini-campaign later that year, thanks to the efforts of my campaign director, Mike Bailey, and Toni Fulton and the financial backing of the Cairns branch.

This campaign leveraged off the national Your Rights at Work campaign

and the local Where’s Warren? campaign, driven by Stuart Trail and the Electrical Trades Union. Stuart Trail would go on to become the ACTU Your Rights at Work coordinator in Leichhardt,

and there is no doubt that the community activism the entire union movement created on the ground in Leichhardt galvanised opposition to the Work Choices laws and drew people back to the Labor Party.

Thank you, Stuart Trail and Kevin O’Sullivan, for leading the campaign and all the unionists who worked

so hard to get rid of the Howard government. We could not have done it without you.

To Colin Riddell: you are obviously disappointed with the way Labor has treated you but what I can't understand is how, having supported Labor as you say, you could out of sheer spite vote for someone like Entsch.

I don't mean to be rude Colin but it doesn't paint you in a very good light. What sort of principles/ideals/beliefs do you have where you could, as a pure dummy spit, go off and vote for someone as reprehensible as Entsch who had around 11 years to do something for this town.

If you are disenchanted with Labor then vote for an independent or minor party that more properly reflects your views or, if they don't exist, cast informally to express your disgust.

Hi Steven, I really wish you’d check a few facts before parroting the latest propaganda line from TWS. If you want evidence of the link, try this report from the Australian on March 16 2009, which, among other things announces:

“Last week, the Queensland Greens struck a preferences deal with Ms Bligh, giving Labor a boost in 14 must-win seats, 10 of which are held by a margin of less than 8 per cent. At the time of the preferences announcement, Greens spokesman Drew Hutton said the minor party had agreed to the deal "on the basis of expected strong policy commitments to the environment from Labor".” http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/bligh-targets-green-voters-families/story-e6frg6no-1111119143355?from=public_rss

Later in that same article it emerges that one of the “expected strong policy commitments” was “to add three southwest Queensland rivers to its Wild Rivers protection program”.

There were other articles around the same time reporting on the preference negotiation between Greens and ALP. The chief Greens negotiators were Ronan Lee and Drew Hutton, and Wild rivers was regularly mentioned as a negotiating issue.

I had personal opportunities during the election campaign to talk about preferences with Sarah Isaacs and her helpers - and the topic of Wild Rivers as a reason to support the ALP in Barron River came up often. In the end, Sarah didn’t get to decide preference allocation, but she did get to consent to the decision made in Brisbane (unconstitutionally).

The Queensland Greens have failed for fifteen years to get a single Parliamentarian elected at state or federal level, and as far as I can see they play the same old games of rorting, exclusion, and personal attack as the Labor Party. Shame.

If you’re going to trade off Aboriginal sovereignty for “influence” with the ALP, at least have the courage to accept the consequences instead of bullshitting around.

@ Bryan Law - it's this sort of crass, intemperate name-calling that ensures you'll remain safely on the sidelines, with no risk of having to actually work co-operatively & constructively in any elected role.

To Stuart & comrades - you're taking the ideology too far - the privatizations proposed are modest. Was your support of Labor campaigns conditional upon agreement with any position your union takes? This is akin to a developer demanding that a donation to the Libs must result in approval of their project. Wettenhall & Turnour, like all MPs in parliamentary democracies, were elected to vote as they see fit, not to bow to sectional demands.

Leuco Glaster,The support of the ETU was due to commitments given by the ALP Government to not Privatise. Less than 3 months later we faced Privatisation. That promise was broken and now Steve vocally supports Privatisation.We would not have given the support that delivered Barron River to Wettenhall if we did not recieve those promises.The Government cannot honestly say that this strategy was not being planned in the leadup to the last election.We were given commitments, those commitments were ratted on and Wettenhall has resigned.Good riddance and don't expect one cent of ETU money or support whatsoever to go to any MP that supports this crazy, shortsighted decision that is going to cost Queenslanders in services and in the hip pocket.

Without the unions campaigning against Howard's draconian anti-union 'WorkChoices", Aussies would today be suffering much the same work conditions that Americans are labouring under. The singer "Pink" highlighted the plight of America's worker in her song, "Please Mr President Walk With Me." The USA has seen the rise of a huge class, "the working poor", many of whom have to rely on food stamps to survive.Tony Abbott has said he is determined to introduce the original "WorkChoices" if he is elected as Prime Minister. Unions therefore still have a role in defending Australia's working families against this attack on our wages and living standards.

Thaddeus,You are spot on, Workchoices allowed employers to prey on the weak and vulnerable. That is UnAustralian. Abbott and his Liberal candidate Entsch will no doubt attempt to reintroduce the same rubbish that lead to them being kicked out. The unions are a legitmate voice in the Industrial arena and unfortunately the Politicians that get elected with our help refuse to acknowledge or remember the faith we place in them. This will obviously come back to haunt them

The problem with you Aussies is your penchant to demonize individuals instead of getting to the root of the problem, your broken parliamentary system. You don't see legislatures in the USA, Germany, or other countries where the "party" forces every member to vote the PARTY LINE. This is a huge defect in the "Westminister" system. It isn't Wettenhall's problem (although I agree he's an empty suit). It's the broken system which strips morals from individuals and rewards empty suits.

Until you people get to the core of the problems, you're doomed to empty Labor suits replacing empty coalition suits, in a round robin of political immorality.

Yes the Westminster system is not ideal, but the European systems with many small parties forming a coalition is not ideal either. But it allows for better representation. However, unlike Australia, you don't get to talk or meet with your local representatives at all. Here they are relatively easy to access.

As for the USA, I believe their political system is so corrupt that I am surprised you would even compare it with ours.

Furthermore, a country that elects someone like George Bush as president or allows someone as ignorant and muddleheaded as Palin to run for VP should not really brag about their political system.

Well said, The Grateful Mac. We might whinge and whine about our pollies, but they are accessible. They can be brought into line by the rank and file of their respective parties and they are bloody accountible to the Australian voting public who have made it plain they won't put up with crap. Lastly, there is no way they can be compared to the corrupt and sociopathic American politician who frankly no longer knows that their role is. As a leading academic once noted...."In the UK, Canada and Australia, the politicians fear the people. In the USA, the people fear the politicians."

You said, "At the time of the preferences announcement, Greens spokesman Drew Hutton said the minor party had agreed to the deal "on the basis of expected strong policy commitments to the environment from Labor".” http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/bligh-targets-green-voters-families/story-e6frg6no-1111119143355?from=public_rss"

CORRECT

Later in that same article it emerges that one of the “expected strong policy commitments” was “to add three southwest Queensland rivers to its Wild Rivers protection program”.

WHAT HAVE 3 SW RIVERS GOT TO DO WITH THE CAPE?

You say, "There were other articles around the same time reporting on the preference negotiation between Greens and ALP. The chief Greens negotiators were Ronan Lee and Drew Hutton, and Wild rivers was regularly mentioned as a negotiating issue."

I HAVE SPOKEN TO DREW ABOUT THIS AND HE ASSURES ME THAT CAPE YORK WILD RIVERS WAS NOT PART OF ANY GREENS DEAL WITH THE ALP

You say, "I had personal opportunities during the election campaign to talk about preferences with Sarah Isaacs and her helpers - and the topic of Wild Rivers as a reason to support the ALP in Barron River came up often."

MAYBE ONCE OR TWICE - SARAH HAS MANY TWS SUPPORTERS.

ONCE AGAIN THE MEDIA AND BRYAN ARE CONFLATING TWS WITH THE GREENS.

Bryan, give up with your misconstrued bias against the Greens. You're just proving how ignorant you are basing all your arguments on hearsay and rumours.

@Bryan law. You're kidding me right Bryan. You take a line from the Oz written by a reporter, give it quotations marks and then use it as a quote / fact to try to substantiate your argument about the Greens. That's downright shoddy.

But that's not most shoddy thing about your response. There is nothing in that article that says a deal was done over wild rivers.

That's because there wasnt one, despite your protestations and desire to somehow, anyhow, make out there was one - for what reason I dont know.

Ummm Steven, it’s not hearsay and rumour. Remember I was present at the conversations I had, and you weren’t. It’s called direct testimony.

I’m not against the Greens, I’d like to participate but I’m not allowed to. What I would like to see is some honesty, accountability and policy discussion within the Far North Greens that goes beyond name-calling and constitutional manipulation.

As for TWS, well I’m afraid I am against them, because they disrespect not only democracy, but Aboriginal sovereignty, and it seems to me they lie and dissemble in a very professional way. Can you tell me Steven and/or Di – has there ever been an election where TWS didn’t direct preferences to Labor (irrespective of policy outcome)?

I remember occasions when TWS and the ALP cooperated to produce bogus “green” election material in support of the ALP. 1995 was the classic example, but they do it regularly now.

But hey! I’ll concede every aspect of the preference deal if you like, and go along with the claim there wasn’t one – IF – you’ll step forward and debate the actual issues publicly with Noel Pearson and other Aboriginal leaders. How about it?

Those of you trying to "educate" the serial fatman Bryan Law are wasting your time. Once he has his greasy paws wrapped around his version of the truth, he cares little about who he hurts or how big his nose becomes. He's the Pinocchio of activists. And when the going gets tough, he lets others take the fall while he holds the ladder.

When does this dick start serving his gaol time? We've all had quite enough of his lying, lazy, slothlike arse.

Its so good to see such an impact made by a local member of parliament. Held in such high regard by the very people who did put him in office. Without members of the ETU and QPSU wets would have been flat out manning a booth when i ran against him in 2006. But here is the news for you Labor - you reap what you sew. You picked him, you financed him and you got him so please dont moan about it. On the Greens question I have always thought of them as the green faction of the labor party and would love for them to prove otherwise. It is one of the things that pissed me off no end having meaningless conversations with a selection of prats who just shut the door because I was a Liberal candidate. As for Stuey having a stoush with wets I just fell over when I read that considering all those hours you put in at the trinity beach booth for him stuey tou must feel cheated. Finally on privatisation, if we had a state government that could look after a kindergarten classes lunch money we may not need to sell off the property of the people of queensland. Never sell your assets especially the state ones because you will never get them back and you will have to rent them forever - short sighted and fiscally stupid - sounds like labor!

Stephen,To say I must feel cheated is an understatement.I also spent a 20 hour day for this bloke at the last election at Whitfield, on top of all the other work and support from the ETU. I am personally sick and tired of ALL politicians making promises, getting elected and quickly forgetting the people that helped get them elected. That happens on all sides of politics.I agree with ALP policy and will continue to fight to improve policy for the betterment of the whole community. The problem is too many Pollies pick and choose what parts of policy the abide by and or implement. There are a lot of decent people in the ALP and the community with decent social values, those are the people that keep me motivated to make a change for the better.

Stuey - i find you whole arguement a bit hypocritical...i mean, you and your mates campaigned hard to get rid of the libs and the armegeddon workchoices on the back of a fear campaign and its ok for you and your mates to tow the party line (and dont give me this BS that you are a union first crap)and tell everyone how the "new modern" awards are so fantastic but you cut wettenhall out because he is following the state party line?? whats the go there ??

You make me laugh everytime you open you mouth stuey.

It quite obvious you dont have any idea other than what your orgnaisers in brisbane or melbourne or where ever the dribble comes from tells you...

The problem is that parasite unions run fear campaigns "you will work for $4 an hour...it will be like the USA.." sound familar? the truth is - workchoices were deisgned to provide flexibility in the work place - something a union cannot comprehend. There were minimum conditions, there was a minimum wage that COULD NOT be lowered, there was freedom of association, and freedom for employees to deal directly with employers to come to a agreement. But as we now know and are facing the consequencs of, the unions fear campaign won out (how many millions were donated stuey??) and now we have the UN official rudd ruining our country and the introduction of the new "Modern awards'

The modern awards are pathetic. If anyone can honestly say they are a step forward they have never taken the time to read any of industries specific award. As an employer i am now in the process of changing everything over AGAIN..and from what i have read so far it is giant step backwards. Gone is the easy-to-follow award i.e you get paid this much per hour! (taking into account resonable OT, and allowances) now i am facing double time after 4 hours, if it rains they get min 4 hours paid, if they get wet that get 3.2% extra..if they use a particualr tool i have to pay an extra 3.2% how do we calculate all this if were running 7 jobs at once ????? from Cairns to Marreba to Innisfail.... MODERN????!?!?!? was that a typo?? it should be renamed MEDIEVAL AWARDS. And before you blow your "i know what's right" trumpet - tell me why, if the last system was so bad, why did my company have one of the lowest employee turnover periods in our history? if we were so bad why did they stay ? and considering there was plenty of work around and other employers chasing them ???

You will not hear a honest word from the ETU and the other parasites about these awards - the hypocrites will continue to churn out what the labor powerbrokers have told them to say - so stuey whats good for the goose is good for the gander.

Ummm Thaddeus? Qantas? The CBA? CSL? More? Also what moron did flog those Qld Guvmint butcher shops aeons ago? Sometimes I can't even get lambs kidneys for brekkie these days?

Lets not forget that the biggest mistake ever in telecommunications was when Beazley and Hawke rolled Keating in cabinet to create Telstra and abolish OTC!Subsequently the policy monopoly monstrosity was created!

Someone above said the privatisations were modest and I agree with the exception of QR. That doesn't mean I agree with all the others and specifically oppose toll road privatisation where I align with left wing economist John Quiggin on congestion charges instead.

On the QR privatisations, which is the only one the unions give a stuff about, the politicisation and flaws of the sale structure is also obvious and has drawn much comment from the financial media.

The structure replicates the Telstra flaws and should be opposed. No problem flogging the QR freight coal rolling stock assets which have been a damned disgrace costing us $millions in Qld.

Flogging the track with them is a bad mistake at this stage,designed to maximise sale price at the expense of subsequent performance, albeit the track also has been badly managed in some critical aspects under the control of the Guvmint.

Work Choices gave employers flexibility and my employees never got anything less than the relevant award.

Why would you have to pay people to sit home if for some reason( like delays in delivery of materials) no work could be done on Monday and it was necessary to work on Saturday to catch up. Of course on Saturday you need to pay overtime,so now you have to pay 20 hrs. labour per person instead of 8. Who is going to pay for that ? It is simply not sustainable. And if Labor is so concerned about apprentices and workers, why have they stopped reimbursing TAFE fees ?

Nobody even knows for sure what the current awards are.

And unscrupulous employers will find ways to screw over their employees no matter what system is in place.

I don't doubt you are one of many responsible employers who have honoured awards.However, under Howard's Workchoices protection from unscrupulous employers was severely eroded. Some appalling wages and conditions were thrust upon workers who had little recourse under this draconian and convuluted legislation. The union movement quite rightly were not prepared to stand by and watch a new class of working poor be created.I was one of many who were proud to particiapte in the local 'Your Rights at Work' campaign run by Stuart Traill. And I am sure there is now far greater protection and IR understanding for workers and bosses beacasue of it.

I support and respect what you stand for. I have not always been an employer and know what life is like "on the other side" and have every reason to treat my workers well.

I think some of the aspects of WorkChoices had merit, and the same goes for the new arrangements.

They have in fact maintained some of the flexibility arrangements (like averaging of hours). Also, our current AWA is still valid and will remain so indefinitely according to advice I received recently from the Fair Pay people.

Only provision is that conditions can't be less than the relevant award. Problem is that nobody can tell me what the relevant award is.

On the other hand, employees should maybe be careful not to push too hard for their rights, especially when they are employed by a small business. Sending your employer broke is hardly going to enhance your employment prospects.

Kitchen Slut, why don't to stick to being a Slut in the Kitchen instead of meddling in affairs that you have no clue about. Then again you probably have the propensity of a real slut and want to have your smelly fingers everywhere.

What a lot of ill-informed nasty crap. If you know nothing about the issue being discussed here, and are obviously predjudiced against unions and what they stand for, then may I suggest that you sit this one out!

While busy attempting to tie the LNP and/or coalition to Mr. Welsh, you've conveniently forgotten that it was the Howard coalition government that put in the Superannuation guarantee - which ensures employees of defunct companies always get their contributions paid.

And company failures are a fact of life in a free-market, where people try to create wealth by hard work and investment. Something you lazy labor socialists know nothing about.

Thank you Miss Prim (et al) for your non-response of ignorant spleen and hate! Was there a point or any specific disagreement there? My fingers tonight are subtly fragrant and restrained thank you :)

Congress: The quote is too trite. As we all should have learnt it's not the profit or loss but the risk adjusted assessment and externalities that should be the first consideration. More pigovian taxes such as an ETS would be the logical response to your equation as proposed by most leading economists. A consensus far greater than climate science and with equally or more confirming evidence?

I am impressed by the number of valid and important issues this whole situation has raised, especially early on in the discussion, and as the candidate who came so close to representing Barron River at the 2009 election, I would like to make the following comments.

Firstly, I do not support the fire sale of these assets, and even more so, I cannot support the actions of people who blatantly lie like Bligh and Co have done. And she has now gagged her Ministers from speaking on the matter. The lies don’t stop there either. Remember the promise of 100,000 jobs? Nothing could be further from the truth, Queensland has worse employment rates than at the time of the election, but the promise from Bligh sure hooked in the voters.

LNP was confident Bligh would go to an early election last year, despite her assurances ‘I will go full term’ that she made even as she prepared her 8 page 'Anna' feature for The Women’s Weekly.

Bligh knew if the electorate realised the level of debt she had got Qld into (not due to GFC)and the desperate measures Labor would take to resolve it, it would have cost her the election. So it had to be held 6 months early, well before the mid-year budget. She and her cabinet quite obviously lied to everyone, knowing what they were planning to do.

They would have thought ‘Get in at any price. We’ll have time to win everyone back over later.’

Next, in regard to preference deals, it is my understanding that getting Ronan Lee back into Parliament (you will recall he defected mid-term from Labor to the Greens) was the main focus of the preference deal between Labor and the Greens. Labor undertook to preference him in his former seat of Indooroopilly in return for getting Green preferences in the 14 most marginal seats for Labor. One of these seats was Barron River.

Interestingly, the whole exercise did not achieve their aim; LNP's candidate, Scott Emerson won Indooroopilly.

I have heard too, that the Greens in Gympie refused to hand out the ‘How to Vote’ leaflets they were supplied by their Brisbane office, in protest over supporting the Labor party which was also fudging around on whether or not they were going to go ahead and build one of the most environmentally challenged dams – Traveston Crossing. LNP had stated categorically they would NOT build the dam.

Meanwhile, our local media reported the Greens in Barron River were giving their preferences to Wettenhall because he was promising the indigenous people from Mona Mona, that Anna Bligh would overturn Labor’s Cabinet decision to take most of their land from them and turn it into a National Park.

After the election though, it seems Wettenhall has said he never promised such a thing; he only promised to INVESTIGATE overturning that decision!!

Many local indigenous people didn’t trust him, but it seems the Greens did. Pity about that because not only had LNP given their word (in writing) to reverse the Cabinet decision, they also undertook to;• Investigate how to support infrastructure development for Mona Mona residents, which they supported in principal• Assist in getting land ownership and freehold title sorted out for indigenous people• Investigate ways of providing redress to the elders of Mona Mona which was denied to them most unfairly on technicalities, through the Forde Inquiry.

These measures were much more far-reaching than what Labor had offered and most importantly, would have really addressed the needs of these people who have been trying hard for so long to help themselves.

I have since been told too that the local Greens still held against me a perceived stance on development at East Trinity. In discussions with local Greens since the election the comment from them ’So you are open to a conversation on this’, has revealed the obvious; we all need to communicate better in future and be quite clear what projects and policies we support when it comes to preferences.

Nobody should forget the other 3 State members, O'Brien, Boyle and Pitt also support the Premier regarding Privatisation of the public assets.They are equally to blame.All of them were also assisted by Union members in their campaigns. They too refuse to repay the faith that was placed in them.Unless these members start listening to the 90% of punters in their electorates that agree with us they will all lose at the next election.

Dear Elephant,Active member and someone with access to labor office I hate to tell you that those lines were not run in campaign against me as they are incorrect. The Affordable Cairns debacle cost me not the employees so please put that to rest.

As for Steve Wetenhall now paying the fees it is just getting beter and better. I also wonder if Stuey is going to have a run at the next state election. If the ETU etc are set against the current state labor policy then the obvious result will be union endorsed candidates running for seats - will they be party endorsed or not will be interesting reading.

...yes Wendy, I agree, one of the main reasons I lobbied for not preferencing you in Barron was that you are pro a new Kuranda Range Road, in favour of the continued development over at False Cape and you and the rest of the Liberal and National Party's (Is Warren a Liberal or a National?)want to build a mono-rail from the daintree to Cape Trib.

You are a party of "Develop and degrade at any price". You are more interested in making money than the welfare of your workers. See Dougie's death over at False Cape as a prime example when the Greens warned there would be deaths on-site.

If I am pre-selected again as the candidate for Cairns by the FNQ Greens I will be pushing for a local & State-wide, "Vote Green 1" with no allocation of preferences to anyone else.

I believe people can make up their own minds about what each party stands for, but as you say an open and public admission of what you want to do when elected would be great.

In a democracy, people get the government they deserve. I often wonder what we’ve done to deserve our present situation.

Wendy is right about the indigenous issues in Barron River (and generally in Queensland). Half a dozen Murris and Bama told me during the election that they were over Labor lies, and didn’t trust Wettenhall or O’Brien in particular. Wendy and her campaign manager John were doing a far better job on those issues.

But if she’s honest Wendy will also admit that the LNP “bosses” in Brisbane didn’t really back her up on issues like the Yacht Club, or pay enough attention to urban issues around Cairns.

I’m also glad to see that Steve Brech intends to have an honest discussion within the Greens about preferences/deals with TWS and Labor. Next time.

But if he’s honest Steve will acknowledge that the Greens “bosses” in Brisbane couldn’t give a toss about democracy or local opinion in Cairns.

I’ll avoid profanity and not comment about the dishonest, stupid, arrogant and offensive current state of the Labor Party.

If we want change then we at the grass-roots of society need to get better at inclusion, honesty and democracy in our own lives, and in the way we organise as a community. There are no short-cuts to this.

For the record I handed out for Steve Brech at Trinity Bay High School. I also tried my best to assist in the defeat of Desley Boyle and Steve Wettenhall, and I wish Stuey Traill and the Greens had been a bit more of a wake-up to the Labor “bosses” in Brisbane before giving them three more years in which to fuck us over.

p.s. I notice that Steven Nowakowski and Di Horsburgh above ran far away at the mention of a public debate.

steve brech I am no wendy lover , but if she promoted a mono rail to the daintree instead of a zillion pollution making cars ,great idea , if she promoted a new kurnada range road instead of the one death trap you have now , great idea , instead of trying to save your own arse after doing a deal with noballs at the last election ,you should listen to what victorians think of the stinking greens after they lost everything includin family during last years bushfires tosser !

Grateful Mac asks: "And what is a lawyer doing in a blue collar union anyway ?"

It's called having a fallback career, mate. Those that dealt with him as a solicitor uniformly report his legal work is shit. While his sparky work may be shit too, at least he'll have someone watching and correcting him. And, he could get electrocuted.

Hey Bryan we got this shit guberman because of your fat gut. All that meat you and wendy gut into leaves JAH and Diablo no other option. Cut to fruit and watch the change.

Y'all barking up the wrong butchery/fish hook. Meat is murder and voodoo never sleeps so little hope for now for any difference. None of the above is vegan yet fruit/veges rule. Why not just slash up guys as you are driving the wrong way up a one way street?

Why Steven, how terribly ethnographic of you. "Big Man" is from New Guinea. "Pow-wow" is from north America. Do you have some quaint terminology from the Australian indigenous? Or are you too aware and respectful for that?

Bryan,Thanks for your comments. They are all accurate as far as I can tell. And thanks Mike for alerting me to them.

Just thought you may be interested (if you are not already aware of it) to follow, as I am, a movement called Will of the People Project(WPP). It does (of course) emanate from Byron Bay, and started out as an attempt for local people there to have more say in local government.

I became aware of this movement during the Peter Spencer campaign, which was featured a lot on the Agmates site.

I am heartened by hearing many comments and seeing actions such as this throughout the community lately in regard to concern for democracy and representation in government.

Wendy, I do honestly think that it is time to hang up your political boots and give a fresh face a chance to represent the seat of Barron River or Cairns in George St Brisbane.Unfortunately, you have had 3 goes at different elections and different seats and on each ocassions you have failed to cut the mustard!For some reason or another you do not seem to have the respect of the community, notwithstanding your immediate familiy's longterm involvement in local civic affairs.Please do not block the community's conduits with another attempt to grab the headlines through, 'Will of the People Project.'

..for those of you wondering about the latest and greatest tool Wendy has taken up in her long running battle for true democracy,( so she can claim victory over evil councils, property developers and State politicians). I'll give you a few quotes from the web-site "United People: Virtual World Government."

At this site Ricardo Johansson claims that the first community to become part of the "Virtual World Government" has been set up in Byron Bay using the Term, "Will of the People Project"

http://www.upworldgov.org/oms/oms.php?loc=gov

He says, "The People have been conditioned to believe that they have authority over their goverments by participating in periodic elections.

In reality a democracy and a republic are both corporate forms of government where the power rests in the apex of a corporate pyramid - the governmental institutions and the elites who control them."

He goies on, "The People are the real masters and the elected government officials are their servants." and contibues, "Article 21 (3) of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights starts with:

'The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government;...' but the words that follow actually retract the People's authority by giving it away to their representatives:

'... this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.'

A government that is not controlled at all times by the People cannot be called a government of, by, to, for, and from the People."

So if Wendy, is indeed "following" this group it looks like the "Viscount" wil have his way.

It seems that Wendy is over 'old democracy' where people are conditioned to vote for politicians (Like that evil mob of councilors in Byron Bay who are Members of The Greens") and looking into "pure democracy".

Wendy may be looking at 'Will of the People Project" as a way to become elected without having to go through the stupid and boring process of actually getting any votes....good luck Wendy, I hope you win.

Now if I were a union boss I would look at his track record with the ETU. It's what we workers call checking out his CV. Ad in this regard it appears that Steve's CV is a tad light on.

Has he paid his dues promptly? NO

Has be represented the views of his Union? NO

Has he made promises to fellow union members and then kept them? NO

In fact I can only see two big "yesses".

Has he benefitted from the hard work and financial support of his fellow union members oly to treat them like shite as soon as the election is won? YES

Is he likely to repeat this in 2012? YES

It should not take much nouse for any union boss vetting potenial membership applications to realise that accepting an application from Steve is high risk. I think the saying is "takes everything, but gives nothing in return."

When I was a site convenor for the amwu , we had grubs like noballs that were in the union and yet did nothing but scab and cause trouble and not pay dues , we also had grubs that said "when we get into trouble we will join up" . I told them under the workplace laws it is an offence to force people to join the union ,which we never ever did. But it is not an offence to stop them from joining , so we told head office if any of these grubs from our site joined up directly from here ,instead of joining without us knowing ,we all would resign from the amwu , all seven stewards . It had an immediate effect on their grubby scabbing attitude.If noballs tried to join any union he should be told sorry we are full !

Steve Brech - what a joke you are ! How many people do you actually have in the FNQ Green Party that follow your ridiculous,ego driven local policies ?The Green Party has you as the sole contact for the State electorates of Barron River, Cairns, Charters Towers, Mulgrave, Tablelands, Cook, Mt Isa etc.

The one man army, or is it just that nobody else that has the environment at heart wants to listen to your shit anymore ?

EXTREMELY reliable source told me wettennoballs called protesting unionist in mareeba the "lnp cheersquad" that were there protesting our four gutless two faced coniving lying members on their lying to the electorate , before the election on privitization.Who wants to bet the protesters don,t hand out for these liars at the next election ?

Help the work of CairnsBlog!Your financial support helps brings issues to the public, that otherwise get ignored by the brain-dead commercial media.
Click the Donate button above. You can also direct deposit into the CairnsBlog a/c. Email for details.

Donate to CairnsBlog

Help the work of CairnsBlog!

Your donations are very much appreciated. By making a donation, you are helping to support my work. Your support will assist in bringing issues to the public, that otherwise get ignored by the brain-dead commercial media.

You can also direct deposit into the CairnsBlog a/c

BSB 06 4175A/C 1013 6761

Friends of CairnsBlogCommonwealth Bank

Donations can be made at any Commonwealth Bank branch, or online.

Help support our work to create a more accountable and open local democracy in Cairns.